I20 The Great World's Farm 



army might easily have been hemmed in unawares by the 

 thick, strong stems. 



Before the end of the summer there was another 

 change. The heads drooped, the leaves faded, the stems 

 turned black and rattled in the breeze until they were 

 blown down by the periodical hurricane, when they quickly 

 rotted away, and the strong, luxuriant clover rushed up 

 again. 



The artichoke, as well as its near relation, the true 

 thistle, requires a rich soil, and would be an exhausting 

 crop if it were cut and removed, because it takes so much 

 food; but as the roots penetrate to a great depth, it bene- 

 fits the clover, and the clover in its turn enriches the soil 

 for the thistles. 



Clover is found, indeed, to be such a beneficial crop 

 that farmers in America sometimes grow it in alternate 

 rows with wheat, and this is also the only kind of green- 

 manuring commonly practiced in England. It is in warm 

 countries, where growth is rapid, that this sort of manur- 

 ing is chiefly useful; and in the Azores, yellow lupins are 

 very frequently sown among the corn and plowed in when 

 it is reaped. 



Lupins are plants which are especially active in dis- 

 solving mineral matter; and the same is true of other 

 members of the large family of leguminous plants to which 

 they belong — clovers, vetches, beans, peas. Moreover, 

 not only these but other plants dissolve more food than 

 they need for their own immediate use and leave it in the 

 soil, making it easier therefore for their successors to 

 find nourishment. 



This, then, is another important service rendered by 

 the wild crops which have grown for ages past on what 



